False consciousness

Last updated

In Marxist theory, false consciousness is a term describing the ways in which material, ideological, and institutional processes are said to mislead members of the proletariat and other class actors within capitalist societies, concealing the exploitation and inequality intrinsic to the social relations between classes. [1] As such, it legitimizes and normalizes the existence of different social classes. [2]

Contents

According to Marxists, false consciousness is consciousness which is misaligned from reality. Thus, it is a serious impediment to human progress and correcting it is a major focus of dialectical materialism. [1]

Origin of terminology

Although Marx never used the term "false consciousness" in his writings, he made references to workers having misguided or harmful ideas, and he suggested how those ideas get reinforced by powerful elites. For example, in an 1870 letter to Sigfrid Meyer and August Vogt, Marx discussed the antagonism between English proletarians and Irish proletarians that was rampant in his day:

The ordinary English worker hates the Irish worker as a competitor who lowers his standard of life. In relation to the Irish worker he regards himself as a member of the ruling nation and consequently he becomes a tool of the English aristocrats and capitalists against Ireland, thus strengthening their domination over himself. He cherishes religious, social, and national prejudices against the Irish worker... This antagonism is artificially kept alive and intensified by the press, the pulpit, the comic papers, in short, by all the means at the disposal of the ruling classes." [3]

Marx considered this type of manipulated animosity among workers to be, in Ashley Crossman's words, "the opposite of class consciousness. Individualistic rather than collective in nature, it produces a view of oneself as a single entity engaged in competition with others of one's social and economic standing, rather than as part of a group with unified experiences, struggles, and interests." [4]

The coinage of "false consciousness" is commonly traced to an 1893 letter from Friedrich Engels to Franz Mehring. It was ten years after Marx's death. Engels was seeking to explain how ideological notions come about, as he and Marx had understood it:

Ideology is a process accomplished by the so-called thinker consciously, it is true, but with a false consciousness. The real motive forces impelling him remain unknown to him; otherwise it simply would not be an ideological process. [5]

Joseph McCarney notes in "Ideology and False Consciousness" that Engels was referring to "a quite specific kind of cognitive failure on the part of an individual, a failure of self-awareness, a lack of insight into the 'motive forces' of their own thinking." [6] Engels was not using the term in its full modern sense, i.e., as the mindset of a subordinate class which wittingly or unwittingly adopts the ideology of the ruling class. [7] As it turns out, Engels only made this one reference to false consciousness. He died two years later and never had an opportunity to expound on its meaning and significance.

Later development

It wasn't until the 1923 book History and Class Consciousness by Hungarian philosopher György Lukács that the concept of false consciousness was explored in depth. Ron Eyerman writes that Lukács defined false consciousness as "the distorted perception and beliefs an individual or a social class acquires through their life activities in capitalist society." [8] Lukács didn't regard false consciousness as a static condition but rather as a dialectical stage in the movement toward a true class consciousness. [9]

In the 1930s, the Italian Marxist theorist Antonio Gramsci emphasized how false consciousness is a tool of ideological control. In his Prison Notebooks, he introduced the notion of cultural hegemony, the process under capitalism whereby the ruling classes create particular norms, values, and stigmas, amounting to a culture in which their continued dominance is considered both commonsensical and beneficial. [10] In Eyerman's assessment, Gramsci "sought to explain the hold bourgeois ideologies had over the working class" and that "[any] movement for progressive social change under such conditions must work to re-educate and transform the false consciousness that makes hegemonic rule possible." [8]

The false consciousness concept was further developed by Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse and the early Frankfurt School of critical theory, as well as by French philosopher Henri Lefebvre. [8] [11] In the latter part of the 20th century, "false consciousness" began to be used in a non-Marxian context, specifically in relation to oppression based on sexual orientation, gender, race and ethnicity. [2]

Structuralist interpretation

During the late 1960s and 1970s, structuralism gained popularity among academics and public intellectuals. In his 1970 essay "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes Towards an Investigation)", Louis Althusser offered a structuralist interpretation of ideology. He asserted that the "ideological apparatus" of the capitalist state⁠—particularly that of the education system⁠—inculcated a false consciousness which favored obedience and conformity. [12]

Other explanations

In recent decades, numerous scholars and political analysts have proposed explanations for why false consciousness arises and proliferates. In a 1984 paper, the economist Marshall I. Pomer argued that members of the proletariat disregard the true nature of class relations because of their faith in the possibility, and even likelihood, of upward mobility. [13] Such faith is necessary according to economics theory with its presumption of rational agency; otherwise wage laborers would not support social relations antithetical to their self-interest.

Some political analysts focus on where people's understanding of their interests originates. In an essay entitled "False Consciousness", Michael Parenti challenges the assumption that working-class Americans freely define their interests but then choose, for various reasons, to think and act against those interests. Instead he writes that "the development of one's own interests and political consciousness in general may be stunted or distorted by misinformation, disinformation, and a narrow but highly visible mainstream political agenda that rules out feasible alternatives." [14] Parenti's contention is that ideological confusion is being propagated in the nation's politics and mass media and thereby causes people to misjudge what their real interests are.

Jon Wiener makes a similar point in his Dissent article "Working-Class Republicans and 'False Consciousness'". He says that Thomas Frank's influential 2004 book What's the Matter with Kansas? was to a large extent an examination of how false consciousness had spread across the poorest counties of the Great Plains states: "He [Frank] shows how the Republicans and their media voices⁠—Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, and so on⁠—appeal to ordinary people with a class-conscious anger at 'the elite.' This elite is not the capitalist class; it is the liberals, who are held responsible for the 'decline' in 'values' that voters are called on to reverse." [15]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cultural hegemony</span> Marxist theory of cultural dominance

In Marxist philosophy, cultural hegemony is the dominance of a culturally diverse society by the ruling class who shape the culture of that society—the beliefs and explanations, perceptions, values, and mores—so that the worldview of the ruling class becomes the accepted cultural norm. As the universal dominant ideology, the ruling-class worldview misrepresents the social, political, and economic status quo as natural, inevitable, and perpetual social conditions that benefit every social class, rather than as artificial social constructs that benefit only the ruling class.

In Marxist philosophy, the term dominant ideology denotes the attitudes, beliefs, values, and morals shared by the majority of the people in a given society. As a mechanism of social control, the dominant ideology frames how the majority of the population thinks about the nature of society, their place in society, and their connection to a social class.

Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, and social transformation. Marxism originates with the works of 19th-century German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxism has developed over time into various branches and schools of thought, and as a result, there is no single, definitive Marxist theory. Marxism has had a profound effect in shaping the modern world, with various left-wing and far-left political movements taking inspiration from it in varying local contexts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Economic determinism</span> Theory that all societal relationships are based on economic relationships

Economic determinism is a socioeconomic theory that economic relationships are the foundation upon which all other societal and political arrangements in society are based. The theory stresses that societies are divided into competing economic classes whose relative political power is determined by the nature of the economic system.

Marxist aesthetics is a theory of aesthetics based on, or derived from, the theories of Karl Marx. It involves a dialectical and materialist, or dialectical materialist, approach to the application of Marxism to the cultural sphere, specifically areas related to taste such as art, beauty, and so forth. Marxists believe that economic and social conditions, and especially the class relations that derive from them, affect every aspect of an individual's life, from religious beliefs to legal systems to cultural frameworks. From one classic Marxist point of view, the role of art is not only to represent such conditions truthfully, but also to seek to improve them ; however, this is a contentious interpretation of the limited but significant writing by Marx and Engels on art and especially on aesthetics. For instance, Nikolay Chernyshevsky, who greatly influenced the art of the early Soviet Union, followed the secular humanism of Ludwig Feuerbach more than he followed Marx.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Critique of ideology</span>

The critique of ideology is a concept used in critical theory, literary studies, and cultural studies. It focuses on analyzing the ideology found in cultural texts, whether those texts be works of popular culture or high culture, philosophy or TV advertisements. These ideologies can be expressed implicitly or explicitly. The focus is on analyzing and demonstrating the underlying ideological assumptions of the texts and then criticizing the attitude of these works. An important part of ideology critique has to do with “looking suspiciously at works of art and debunking them as tools of oppression”.

Marxian class theory asserts that an individual's position within a class hierarchy is determined by their role in the production process, and argues that political and ideological consciousness is determined by class position. A class is those who share common economic interests, are conscious of those interests, and engage in collective action which advances those interests. Within Marxian class theory, the structure of the production process forms the basis of class construction.

Marxism is a method of socioeconomic analysis that originates in the works of 19th century German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxism analyzes and critiques the development of class society and especially of capitalism as well as the role of class struggles in systemic, economic, social and political change. It frames capitalism through a paradigm of exploitation and analyzes class relations and social conflict using a materialist interpretation of historical development – materialist in the sense that the politics and ideas of an epoch are determined by the way in which material production is carried on.

Marxist humanism is an international body of thought and political action rooted in a humanist interpretation of the works of Karl Marx. It is an investigation into "what human nature consists of and what sort of society would be most conducive to human thriving" from a critical perspective rooted in Marxist philosophy. Marxist humanists argue that Marx himself was concerned with investigating similar questions.

In Marxist philosophy, reification is the process by which human social relations are perceived as inherent attributes of the people involved in them, or attributes of some product of the relation, such as a traded commodity.

In Marxism, class consciousness is the set of beliefs that persons hold regarding their social class or economic rank in society, the structure of their class, and their class interests. According to Karl Marx, class consciousness is an awareness that is key to sparking a revolution which would "create a dictatorship of the proletariat, transforming it from a wage-earning, property-less mass into the ruling class".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Base and superstructure</span> Model of society in Marxist theory

In Marxist theory, society consists of two parts: the base and superstructure. The base refers to the mode of production which includes the forces and relations of production into which people enter to produce the necessities and amenities of life. The superstructure refers to society's other relationships and ideas not directly relating to production including its culture, institutions, roles, rituals, religion, media, and state. The relation of the two parts is not strictly unidirectional. The superstructure can affect the base. However, the influence of the base is predominant.

Classical Marxism is the body of economic, philosophical, and sociological theories expounded by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in their works, as contrasted with orthodox Marxism, Marxism–Leninism, and autonomist Marxism which emerged after their deaths. The core concepts of classical Marxism include alienation, base and superstructure, class consciousness, class struggle, exploitation, historical materialism, ideology, revolution; and the forces, means, modes, and relations of production. Marx's political praxis, including his attempt to organize a professional revolutionary body in the First International, often served as an area of debate for subsequent theorists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marxist literary criticism</span>

Marxist literary criticism is a theory of literary criticism based on the historical materialism developed by philosopher and economist Karl Marx. Marxist critics argue that even art and literature themselves form social institutions and have specific ideological functions, based on the background and ideology of their authors. The English literary critic and cultural theorist Terry Eagleton defines Marxist criticism this way: "Marxist criticism is not merely a 'sociology of literature', concerned with how novels get published and whether they mention the working class. Its aims to explain the literary work more fully; and this means a sensitive attention to its forms, styles and, meanings. But it also means grasping those forms styles and meanings as the product of a particular history." In Marxist criticism, class struggle and relations of production are the central instruments in analysis.

"Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes Towards an Investigation)" (French: "Idéologie et appareils idéologiques d'État (Notes pour une recherche)") is an essay by the French Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser. First published in 1970, it advances Althusser's conception and critique of ideology. Where Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels posited a thinly-sketched theory of ideology as a system of falsehoods serving the ruling class, Althusser draws upon the works of later theorists such as Antonio Gramsci, Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan to proffer a more elaborate redefinition of the theory. Althusser's theory of ideology has remained influential since it was written.

Marxist philosophy or Marxist theory are works in philosophy that are strongly influenced by Karl Marx's materialist approach to theory, or works written by Marxists. Marxist philosophy may be broadly divided into Western Marxism, which drew from various sources, and the official philosophy in the Soviet Union, which enforced a rigid reading of what Marx called dialectical materialism, in particular during the 1930s. Marxist philosophy is not a strictly defined sub-field of philosophy, because the diverse influence of Marxist theory has extended into fields as varied as aesthetics, ethics, ontology, epistemology, social philosophy, political philosophy, the philosophy of science, and the philosophy of history. The key characteristics of Marxism in philosophy are its materialism and its commitment to political practice as the end goal of all thought. The theory is also about the struggles of the proletariat and their reprimand of the bourgeoisie.

Orthodox Marxism is the body of Marxist thought which emerged after the deaths of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the late 19th century, expressed in its primary form by Karl Kautsky. Kautsky's views of Marxism dominated the European Marxist movement for two decades, and orthodox Marxism was the official philosophy of the majority of the socialist movement as represented in the Second International until the First World War in 1914, whose outbreak caused Kautsky's influence to wane and brought to prominence the orthodoxy of Vladimir Lenin. Orthodox Marxism aimed to simplify, codify and systematize Marxist method and theory by clarifying perceived ambiguities and contradictions in classical Marxism. It overlaps significantly with Instrumental Marxism.

Dialectical materialism is a materialist theory based upon the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels that has found widespread applications in a variety of philosophical disciplines ranging from philosophy of history to philosophy of science. As a materialist philosophy, Marxist dialectics emphasizes the importance of real-world conditions and the presence of functional contradictions within and among social relations, which derive from, but are not limited to, the contradictions that occur in social class, labour economics, and socioeconomic interactions. Within Marxism, a contradiction is a relationship in which two forces oppose each other, leading to mutual development.

Western Marxism is a current of Marxist theory that arose from Western and Central Europe in the aftermath of the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the ascent of Leninism. The term denotes a loose collection of theorists who advanced an interpretation of Marxism distinct from classical and Orthodox Marxism and the Marxism-Leninism of the Soviet Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of Marxism</span> Overview of and topical guide to Marxism

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Marxism:

References

  1. 1 2 Ministry of Education and Training (Vietnam) (2023). Curriculum of the Basic Principles of Marxism-Leninism. Vol. 1. Translated by Nguyen, Luna. Banyan House Publishing. p. 231. ISBN   9798987931608.
  2. 1 2 "False consciousness". Encyclopædia Britannica . Retrieved 2023-07-28.
  3. ↑ Marx, Karl (April 9, 1870). "Marx letter to Sigfrid Meyer and August Vogt" – via Marx/Engels Archive.
  4. ↑ Crossman, Ashley (July 25, 2019). "Understanding Karl Marx's Class Consciousness and False Consciousness". ThoughtCo.
  5. ↑ Engels, Friedrich (July 14, 1893). "Engels to Franz Mehring" – via Marx Engels Internet Archive.
  6. ↑ McCarney, Joseph (2005). "Ideology and False Consciousness" – via Joe McCarney Archive.
  7. ↑ Peter Hossler (2020). "False Consciousness". Encyclopedia of Critical Whiteness Studies in Education. Brill. ISBN   9789004444836.
  8. 1 2 3 Eyerman, Ron (1981). "False Consciousness and Ideology in Marxist Theory". Acta Sociologica. 24 (1/2): 43–56. JSTOR   4194332. S2CID   154909272.
  9. ↑ Lukács, György (1967). History and Class Consciousness: Studies in Marxist Dialectics. London: Merlin Press. ISBN   9780850361971.
  10. ↑ Gramsci, Antonio (2003). Selections from the Prison Notebooks. International Publishers. p. 258.
  11. ↑ Merrifield, Andy (March 1, 2020). "Mystified Consciousness". Monthly Review.
  12. ↑ Althusser, Louis (1970). "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes towards an Investigation)" – via Louis Althusser Archive.
  13. ↑ Marshall I. Pomer (October 1984). "Upward Mobility of Low-Paid Workers: A Multivariate Model for Occupational Changers". Sociological Perspectives. 27 (4): 427–442. doi:10.2307/1389035. ISSN   0731-1214. JSTOR   1389035. S2CID   147390452.
  14. ↑ Parenti, Michael (1996). "False Consciousness". Dirty Truths. City Lights Books. pp. 209–214. ISBN   9780872863170.
  15. ↑ Wiener, Jon (Spring 2024). "Working-Class Republicans and 'False Consciousness'". Dissent.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.